ENGLISH SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 379 



make a donation, T will sell them you a bargain, a hundred volumes 

 for thirty shillings! You won't? Well ! I have sent to offer them 

 to the society, and I dare say it will buy them at half price ; it will 

 save their money, and I shall make a tolerable profit. I wish you 

 good morning, Sir, and thank ye." 



In the evening I attended a lecture delivered in an institution 

 dedicated to the instruction of the working community. I expected 

 of course to hear a plain practical discourse on some subject 

 having reference to the condition of those for whose benefit it was 

 said to be delivered, a familiar view of agriculture, a statement of 

 their relative position in society, with its advantages. or a brief 

 exposition of their moral and social duties : no such thing. The 

 meeting was composed of young and old men, the majority of whom 

 were obviously of the working class : they were in the first place 

 amused by watching the movements of an orrery, and then enlightened 

 by a tissue of bombast and absurdity on the poetry of the ancients. 

 Surely, I said, this is a singular people; the means and the ends of 

 their intentions are diametrically opposed to each other. They 

 pretend to educate themselves, and yet learn nothing which can 

 make them good men or good citizens, which is the very aim of 

 education. 



On my return through the streets, I overtook a group of the 

 edified class, and heard the following remarks upon the lecture. 



"Why, I say, Jem, dang my buttons! but yonder fellow's a 

 greater foo' than ony we 'en had afore. My eye ! does he think 

 we're such softies as to tak his word that yon whirligig thing of his 

 is like the univarse ?" 



" Ha ! ha ! ha !" said another, " we 're no such foo's as that. I 

 think it would ha' been more to the purpose if he 'd told us how 

 to Jive on six shillings a-week." In this expression I fully 

 coincided. 



The inn at which I had taken up my temporary abode happened 

 to stand on a rising ground in the middle of the town, and com- 

 manded a fine prospect from its upper windows of the surrounding 

 country. On my return, I went up stairs to jot down my remarks, 

 whilst my supper was getting ready ; and on accidentally looking 

 out of one of the casements, was astonished to see two or three fires 

 at different points of the horizon. I leaned out for a few minutes, ad- 

 miring their singular effects upon the surrounding darkness, and the 

 ruddy canopy they formed in the night sky. In many countries which 

 I had visited, I had observed that nightly fires were kindled to keep off 

 evil spirits and wild beasts ; and in England I remembered to have 

 read that fires called bonfires were during the times of ignorance and 

 superstition made to frighten away witches. I naturally supposed that 

 one of the two latter causes had led to the making of these night- 

 fires : to be quite certain, however, I rang the bell, and the cham- 

 bermaid made her appearance. 



" Pray, my pretty maiden ! what are these fires I see in different 

 directions bonfires, perhaps?" 



" Lord sake, Sir, they 're 'cindery fires." 



" 'Cindery fires ! incendiary fires, perhaps you mean ? that is 



